Did you know...?

… That O’Connell’s has a new menu.

Dublin - 27th-30th May, 2007.

Sunday, May 27th

On Sunday morning every one found their own way to O’Connell’s, as we had agreed on meeting up there before catching the bus to the airport. There’s nothing better to start the morning with than a bottle of Lonkero at 10.30 am. Surprisingly, everybody even had remembered to take a passport along.

To the bus then… except Marika who was already waiting for us at the airport, so as to make sure she could get in to the plane among the first to pick her seat. We even bumped into some familiar faces at the airport. Someone coming back from Dublin and someone, who was going to fly with us on the same plane. Marika was adamant about getting on to the plane first so she didn’t leave her post at the gate for a second (See if you can spot the familiar face in the picture).

Then the plane was there! We actually got to leave an hour early, because everyone was on board. As soon as we got off the ground it was time to order some booze in a bag. Seriously, they sell them by the bag. Everyone was glad to be on their way, even Marika said she’s actually feeling quite comfortable while she’s surrounded by people she knows instead of strangers.

BUT here’s the beauty of flying with Ryanair. Since we left Tampere a bit early, we arrived over Dublin an hour ahead of schedule and of course the Dublin airport didn’t have an opening for us to land so we were denied a landing permission and had to fly to Shannon airport to the other side of the Island to fuel up. So, we basically got two flights for the price of one, since we had two take-offs and two landings. Anyway, the flight that was an hour early ended up being an hour late! That sort of flattened the mood… Finally, we found ourselves at Dublin airport waiting for our luggage with that familiar face.

As soon as we got out of the terminal building with our bags it was time to find a light for us smokers, which later on turned out to be missing for the whole length of the trip, or so it seemed. Anyway, we found us a big enough cab to take us to our accommodation, a hostel called, Ashfield House on D’Olier Street.

As soon as we got our luggage off our hands and into a “safe” keeping. We headed into town in search of food and drinks. We found our way to the popular Temple Bar –area and into a pub called The Auld Dubliner. The girls went for the local specialities like Dublin Coddle and Guinness Beef Stew, where as the boys stuck to the more familiar hamburgers and chicken curries. All and all, the food was quite tasty and everybody felt much happier with a full stomach and a few pints in them. The Asian staff in the bar was fast and efficient; and according to Jukka, even the plumbing held up to the Finnish demands ;-) . One interesting detail in the pub’s toilets was that there were perfume vending machines in both the ladies and gents.

We also thought that since we’re in Ireland we should have Irish names. Or at least that’s what Seán thought, so, here they are: Mari – Mary (how inventive), Ansu – Aisling (a.k.a. Slingy), Marika – Majella, Thomas – Tomás and last, but not least Jukka – Joseph/ then James and then Séamus (he smiled when he got Séamus).

Now that we were all ready for Dublin, we headed to The Porterhouse bar, but it was a bit too crowded so we backtracked to the Temple Bar, a very nice bar a the heart of Temple Bar area. For some reason the bartender looked familiar to the girls, but he didn’t admit to being in Finland, but we did bump into a few familiar faces, yet again; a nice gothic couple that we saw in O’Connell’s a few weeks earlier. Small world, eh? The bar had a great solution for smokers, though it might not work in Finland. The inner courtyard was fused as part of the bar and since there was no roof you could smoke in there. They had heaters for when it got cold and shades in case it rained.

So, after a pint in there Seán left to go and see his parents and sister and the rest of us just wondered about looking for the next bar to get into and seeing the sites. After a while of not being able to decide where we should go, we called up Seán and hooked up with him again at O’Neill’s.

Like most of the pubs we went into, O’Neill’s, on Suffolk Street, had live music. And we must say, the skill of the musicians was somewhat better than the ones we’ve had in O’Connell’s…It was quite a big bar as well and quite full, even though it was Sunday. They also had a very nice and big terrace for smoking, TV and everything. The coolest thing might have been the toilets, though. They had UV-lights in there and, at least in my drunken mind, it was about the funniest thing I ever saw. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and a lot of drinks as well, as you can see from the picture.

So, I’m sure Seán’s parents got a good picture of us that night… Then it was time to leave for a nightclub, because they close their pubs early in Dublin, about twelve o’clock. Seán’s sister and her friend were kind enough to lead the way… and so we found ourselves in front of Copper Face Jack’s on Harcourt Street. Now the thing was to get in without paying. Luckily, Seán’s sister and her friend were cops and they convinced the bouncers that we were a group of policemen from Finland visiting Dublin! They did look a bit suspicious, though, especially at Ansu’s hair, but we got in anyway! And after that the collective images of the evening are quite scarce. We do know that any shot of alcohol was quite expensive, I mean 6,30 € for 2,5 cl of Jägermeister!! The place was quite big and when we got in there was a band playing covers upstairs and the downstairs was quite empty, but later on after the band had finished the downstairs got full too. Especially Jukka was quite into the band.

The bathrooms were quite nice and they even had just one tap for cold and warm water! You could see the effect of the prices in the toilets that were full of people’s own flasks. They also had this big outdoors smoking terrace. Although, it wasn’t as nice as some. Anyway, we were all quite sloshed and when it was time to leave after all that partying, we didn’t quite know where we were… So the journey back to the hostel took us about an hour, when it should’ve taken just 20 minutes. There were a few “words” exchanged on the way and somebody got a bit peckish for some kebab as well… (Abrakebabra is the coolest name ever for a kebab place). Finally, though, we got to the hostel and into our room of 8 persons. I’m pretty sure the two that were in the room addition to us weren’t that happy when we arrived, not so quietly, about 4 o’clock in the morning. Oh well, that’s hostels for you…

Monday, May 28th
We woke up after a short and snore-full night at about 9 am. Got to breakfast, which included coffee/tea, orange juice, cereals and a big roll of bread with jam and butter.

We had to take our luggage back to the luggage room again, because we were changing rooms to a 6- bed room just for us. Then it was time to hit the shops and we completed our shopping list quite quickly and went for lunch. The boys headed to Burger King, but the girls found themselves a nice little pub called Stag’s Head hidden away on Dame Court to have lunch in. This is a good moment to take a look at the weather: Ok, the sun is shining and it’s really warm, but wait 5 minutes later it’s raining cats and dogs! 10 minutes later it’s shining again, no wait, it’s hailing (yes, you read it right, hailing) and now it’s shining again, but wait… That pretty much sums it up I think.

Anyway, after lunch we headed on to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate, which was about a 25-minute walk away (unless you stop for half a pint at The Porterhouse, like we did and find Karhu and Karjala on their shelves and Lapin Kulta on draft). While, Seán, who had already seen it, went to catch the tour on Croke Park Stadium.

It was quite late already when we got to the Storehouse and we just sort of rushed through the exhibition, which in itself seemed quite dull. There were 7 storeys and so we just climbed on to the Gravity Bar on the rooftop and got our “free” Guinness (it cost 14 € to get in, so basically the most expensive pint of Guinness in the world, probably). One would think they could do a better job there for the amount of people that go there every year. We were not the only disappointed ones, by the looks of it. The views were nice enough from the top anyway.

After that we did do some shopping at the Guinness store and got f.e. new work-shirts for the girls.

After walking back to the Hostel from the Guinness trip, we hunted down Seán again in this pub called Kate’s Cottage on Amien Street on the other side of the bridge, where he was hanging around with his two friends. It was a nice little pub and feeling the walk from Guinness we decided to eat there before roving into any other pubs. Food was decent enough and Bulmer’s on draft was only €4,80. They did not, however, have a smoking terrace.

So, after finishing our pints and plates we headed on towards new adventures with Seán’s friends as our guides. The next pub we ended up in after crossing the river again was called MacTurcaill’s on Tara Street. It was a small enough place and we got down to writing our postcard to O’Connell’s, which we never got round to sending…Where the hell can you buy stamps in that country?!

Anyway, one pint fuller we headed on to O’Donahue’s near Grafton Street. It was also quite quiet, but seemed like a very nice pub. The upstairs was very comfortable and the atmosphere quite nice.

Next on it was John Kehoe’s pub on South Anne Street. A snug little pub with a rustic upstairs and friendly staff that could say Moi! As it was getting late we decided to stay there for the remainder of the evening and enjoy a few good whiskies. We did try to find another place still open, but decided in the end to head back to our lovely accommodation facilities via some Chinese food and crack open a whisky bottle.

Tuesday, May 29th

After a relatively good night sleep, it was down to breakfast again after 9 am. After we got everybody up and fed, we headed down to O’Connell Street for some shopping, while Seán went to see his family. Despite all the shopping centres and boutiques, the crew didn’t spend their money on anything too frivolous, but stuck to pints of alcoholic beverages the whole trip. It’s surprising how much money can be spent on just food and drinks…

After a while Seán caught up with us on Mary Street and it was time to walk to the Old Jameson Distillery on Bow Street. We arrived there a little ahead of schedule and decided to fill our stomachs at the next-door restaurant’s terrace while the sun was shining. Oh yes, Tuesday was actually a quite steadily sunny day! After the disappointing Guinness tour, Jameson was class and we heartily recommend it to anyone going to Dublin. The tour included a short film on the history of Jameson Distilleries and a very informative tour lead by a very articulate nice young man. As we were “special guests”, we got to take part in the whisky tasting which included Jameson, Paddy and Powers and the most selling scotch and bourbon for comparison. Like all the other guests, we also got a free glass of Jameson, plus one more glass as thanks for the tasting along with diplomas. So by the end of it we were a bit tipsy when leaving… And yes, when the tour guide jokingly said that the glass of water next to our whiskies might be the first one on our holiday so far, he was quite correct!

Right, next on we all wanted to visit the famous and historical Kilmainham Gaol and decided to walk there, which at first seemed like a decent idea, but after about 30 minutes we weren’t quite sure it was a good idea after all. We finally did find and reach it just in time for the last tour of the day just before 5 pm. The tour guide was a really nice older chap, who kept on checking that we understood his English (?). The place was quite impressive and even though you couldn’t see the whole Gaol, you got the feeling of it. A good bit of Irish history there and we recommend everybody visiting Dublin to visit the Gaol as well. Some might recognise the place from several movies and music videos.

After the informative tour into Ireland’s history and independence, we walked to a near by pub called Patriots’ Inn for some “refreshments”. A nice little pub with a touch of “local colour” that insisted on speaking to us. After a few pints we decided to walk (yes, walking again) back to our hostel. As the boys were a bit faster again, the girls took it easy and decided to go for dinner at The Porterhouse, on the way. The pub was built in four storeys with an open space in the middle so you can see from one level to the other. It was full of carved wood and nice details and a lot of beer bottles from around the world on the walls. The food was good basic restaurant/pub food. We had some nice salads and burgers with very, very large chips and the cost was quite manageable too. So having filled their stomachs the girls made their way to the hostel and wandered what happened to the boys. After a few calls, the girls finally got a hold of them and you’ll never guess where they were… yes, indeed, The Porterhouse it was. The boys had had dinner in a pub called Eamonn Doran’s earlier on and must have just missed the girls in The Porterhouse. Anyway, the group was intact again and enjoying their last night in Dublin in The Porterhouse. There was live music played by a young man with a guitar and he was not half bad at all. We even bought a CD off of him at the end of his gig and heard that he was actually coming to Finland for a tour this summer!

After that pub closed we were off to the one the boys found earlier that day called Eamonn Doran’s on Crown Alley which was open until late. First we headed downstairs to the night club part of it, which after a while reminded us of Doris, except that the people seemed a bit “high” or otherwise weird, that is, even weirder than Doris-people. So we headed upstairs and enjoyed the music and drinks until it was closing time again and we had to head for the hostel.

After an hours rest it was time to leave for the airport at 05.00 with a taxi, which proofed to be frustratingly complicated, since the one we ordered in advance never showed up. We still got to the airport in time and stood first in line, when the check-in opened. Then we had an hour or so for shopping and breakfast before heading for the gates. That was a long walk, too! Finally, after a long wait we got to board the plane and leave about an hour late. As soon as we got in to the plane everybody started sleeping and the flight was soon over and we even landed on time in Tampere.

So, tired but happy we had survived and were back home!

Posted: 12 Jul 07, during your after work pint!

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